SOURCE: "Sermon 1: The Character of Job," in Sermons from Job, translated by Leroy Nixon, 1952. Reprint by W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979, pp. 3-17.

Calvin was an influential French theologian and Protestant reformer. Among his most famous writings is the Christianae Religionis Institutio, (1536; Institutes of the Christian Religion). Although primarily known as a theologian, Calvin was also a devoted preacher whose sermons were most often delivered extemporaneously, a fact which has prevented the preservation of his early sermons. In 1549, however, a group of his devotees hired Denis Reguenier as a secretary to record his addresses. Calvin 's usual method of preaching was to speak on entire books of the Bible consecutively. The 159 sermons on The Book of Job, for example, were delivered between 1554 and 1555. In the following sermon, he considers the nature of Job's "integrity" and examines the book's theme of "spiritual temptation" to reject God during a time...